And, as a bonus, the very first photo I have of the project that eventually became Molting Grackles:

This is every image I could get out of the 8″ x 8″ test swatch I had of this small grackle fabric. The larger squares are 2″ and the smaller are 1″. I thought I’d make a mug rug or something. Contrast the photos of the layout in this post.

Looking at it now, I could have just spread the found small squares out at the bottom to make them an even width with the top, cut papers the right size to fill in the background and used a very dark blue and bound it in same and DONE, cute little mug rug.

But no. I had to get more grackle fabric and on and on. I am the master of scope creep. I’m making good progress, though, so I’m happy.

I have to say that the dark blue crosshatch fabric is growing on me. I got a LOT of it (from my sewing relative, I think) and it just looked old-timey and depressing to me, but now I see a lot of possibilities in it and I think I’ll be sad when it’s all gone. I plan to use whatever’s left over of it in my Stash Bee in RSC colors blocks–the January Hive 8 Cross Roads Block, in particular.

Let’s talk about Grackle Party. I’ve shared some individual blocks, but not my design for it. Well, design hope, since only the design of the center is really set in stone now. I did talk a little about how it started in this post, basically as a reintroduction to sewing after having my fourth child. Grackle Party is going to be a wall-hanging, though how large it’ll be is still uncertain.

I was looking through some pictures from before my move and hope they’ll help illustrate.

I went with the center square design and cut more mitered frames in the same size and bigger ones to go around it. I figured only the center square would have a complicated pieced center, since I really didn’t want to bother with more and it was a good focal point. The fabric from Spoonflower also came in a larger print size, which was perfect for the insides of these squares.

Then I decided that having double mitered frames would look weird and would be too annoying to EPP, so I alternated the mitered frames with straight frames with cornerstones. Below you can see an example of each of the two blocks.

On the left is the mitered frame inside. On the right, the mitered frame is outside. The small block above them with the big frame might go into the border. I thought I’d put the bigger framed blocks on point with scrappy neutrals between and then border it with the smaller framed squares, floating in the background. At the bottom, you can see that I was toying with the idea of adding a colored bit in the center of the neutral areas. I’ll come back to that in a future post.

The math to make it all fit was annoying, and I didn’t really like the border idea. So, I stopped thinking about the border at this point and put all of those parts away and focused on the center (essentially square-in-a-square) nine blocks.

You’ve been seeing those blocks as I finish them, and I have more to show you in the coming weeks, especially if I can find more of the planning pictures form before the move.

For a more complete list of my WiPs, look above my header image at the “Project List” link. That list is a work in progress, too.

Before the end of March, I hope to finish (or work on or think about):

The Star Wall Hanging on black, for my mother. Two more years and it’s still not done yet. Argh.

Tiny Flower Garden for Prim. It’s a lot more done now than it is in this picture, and I have more pictures of its assembly which I have yet to blog. I think if I really push, I can get it quilted and bound and ready for hanging in under three months. I’m dreading the applique to the borders, but I think I’ve done enough hand-sewing by now that it’ll be fine. I have no idea how I’m going to quilt it beyond “simply”, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

3. Pumpkin Patch for Sec. I’d decided that this would be a twin-sized quilt, but I’m going back to my toddler-bed-sized plan. It’ll be a faster finish and he’s not super-into pumpkins anymore, so this can go into storage for someday when he moves out and takes it with him. Or he can use it on the couch. Or both.

4. Red and white twin-sized bed quilt for Sec. Not blogged (or named) yet, I’ll add a link when I post about it.

8a-d. Four 7.5″ x 8″ drink/snack mats for the kids’ new drink station. These are EPPed and I’ll have to redact the photos, since each features its owner’s first initial. I have Prim’s ready, but I need to re-do the binding as I rushed it and it’s not great. The paper for Sec’s is cut out and I’m in the basting stage. These are four separate projects, since they’re time-consuming, but they’re part of a series so I’m listing them together. Not blogged yet.

9. Four 7.5″ x 8″ alternate drink/snack mats. These will be machine-pieced and are much simpler, so they count as one project. I have the top of Prim’s sewn together and Sec pulled fabrics for his, but that’s about as far as I’ve gotten. Not blogged yet.

And I’ll leave it here, since I don’t want to miss the link-up for the first quarter. I’ll keep updating my “Project List” link, since I’d like a master list of my WiPs to work from.

Four minuscule hexagon flowers done, and after taking the last photo on the light background, I realized I liked it much more than the bright green I’d used to baste some of the hexagons.

But now seeing the flowers on this more muted, olive-y green, I like it more then the white I’d intended to use as the path.

But I already basted and sewed most of the background together and I used one of the few flowers on black I have in the center.

But it’s not centered.

A cascade of “buts”. I”m thinking about just stuffing this one into a container with this green and a strip of white and coming back to it later. It’s just not fun sewing these little things together anymore and I’d like to make progress on my other projects. We’ll see if that’ll stick.

As I was working on sewing the minuscule hexagons together for the flowers, I realized that it wasn’t that much fun. The small needle was too small and it was easier with a longer needle, but still no fun. So I’m only going to make four flowers for the needle book. I don’t need flowers on the back cover or spine. They’ll be a feature for the front. Here are the three I have done, and a few basted hexagons of the green path fabric. Only the orange flower left to go.

I was planning on a white/light hexagon with a fussy-cut motif for the center of the four flowers, but I’m not finding anything suitable in my stash. I thought the fabric I have them on above would work, but it’s not precise enough a motif. I’ll keep looking. I haven’t had time with the kids on Winter Break.

Also, I see, especially in the photo, that the stitches are showing more than normal (and they’re about six on each edge, not seven). I hope the fabric will relax a little when I take the papers out, as I do plan on taking the papers out.

There will be a blog post for 2017 plans, but it’s not done yet. I do plan to backdate it to the first. Try not to freak out about it, my single blog follower. ;)

The orange hexagons are all from the same fabric. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have another section with the dots, so the flower from this orange fabric will have one plain petal.

Yes, I’m going to make a 3/16″ hexagon grandmother’s flower garden needle book. How big? How will I finish it? No idea yet. I’m going to have at least two orange flowers, one red, one yellow, two blue, and one purple.

That’s seven flowers, which is not a great number for this, so I’ll probably add another purple and one pink. I don’t tend to buy pink fabric, but I’m sure I have enough scraps on hand from my eBay haul for six 3/16″ hexagons.

Scrappy green path, maybe green borders, very minimal quilting, some felt pages (I have some wool/poly felt on hand), and done. (Ha! It’s not going to be that easy or that fast.)